RFC for prepublication dependencies

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+- Feature Name: prepublish
+- Start Date: 2017-03-22
+- RFC PR: (leave this empty)
+- Rust Issue: (leave this empty)
+
+# Summary
+[summary]: #summary
+
+This RFC proposes the concept of *augmenting sources* for Cargo. Sources can be
+enhanced with new versions of a crate that did not exist or have existing
+versions replaced. Dependency resolution will work *as if* these additional
+crates actually existed in the original source.
+
+One primary feature enabled by this is the ability to "prepublish" a crate to
+crates.io. Prepublication makes it possible to perform integration testing
+within a large crate graph before publishing anything to crates.io, and without
+requiring dependencies to be switched from the crates.io index to git branches.
+It can, to a degree, simulate an "atomic" change across a large number of crates
+and repositories, which can then actually be landed in a piecemeal, non-atomic
+fashion.
+
+# Motivation
+[motivation]: #motivation
+
+Large Rust projects often end up pulling in dozens or hundreds of crates from
+crates.io, and those crates often depend on each other as well. If the project
+author wants to contribute a change to one of the crates nestled deep in the
+graph (say, `xml-rs`), they face a couple of related challenges:
+
+- Before submitting a PR upstream to `xml-rs`, they will usually want to try
+ integrating the change within their project, to make sure it actually meets
+ their needs and doesn't lead to unexpected problems. That might involve a
+ *cascade* of changes if several crates in the graph depend on `xml-rs`. How do
+ they go about this kind of integration work prior to sending a PR?
+
+- If the change to the upstream `xml-rs` crate is breaking (would require a new
+ major version), it's vital to carefully track which other crates in the graph
+ have successfully been updated to this version, and which ones are still at
+ the old version (and can stay there). This issue is related to the notion of
+ [private dependencies](https:/rust-lang/cargo/issues/2064), which
+ should have a separate RFC in the near future.
+
+- Once they're satisfied with the change to `xml-rs` (and any other intermediate
+ crates), they'll need to make PRs and request a new publication to
+ crates.io. But they would like to cleanly continue local development in the
+ meantime, with an easy migration as each PR lands and each crate is published.
+
+## The Goldilocks problem
+
+It's likely the a couple of Cargo's existing features have already come to mind
+as potential solutions to the challenges above. But the existing features suffer
+from a Goldilocks problem:
+
+- You might reach for git (or even path) dependencies. That would mean, for
+ example, switching an `xml-rs` dependency in your crate graph from crates.io
+ to point at, for example, a forked copy on github. The problem is that **this
+ approach does not provide enough dependency unification**: if other parts of
+ the crate graph refer to the crates.io version of `xml-rs`, it is treated as
+ an entirely separate library and thus compiled separately. That in turn means
+ that two crates in the graph using these distinct versions won't be able to
+ talk to each other about `xml-rs` types (even when those types are identical).
+
+- You might think that `[replace]` was designed precisely for the use case
+ above. But **it provides too much dependency unification**: it reroutes *all*
+ uses of a particular existing crate version to new source for the crate, even
+ if there are breaking changes involved. The feature is designed for surgical
+ patching of specific dependency versions.
+
+Prepublication dependencies add another tool to this arsenal, with just the
+right amount of dependency unification: the precise amount you'd get after
+publication to crates.io.
+
+# Detailed design
+[design]: #detailed-design
+
+The design itself is relatively straightforward. The Cargo.toml file will
+support a new section for augmenting a source of crates:
+
+```toml
+[augment.crates-io]
+xml-rs = { path = "path/to/fork" }
+```
+
+The listed dependencies have the same syntax as the normal `[dependencies]`
+section, but they must all come form a different source than the source being
+augmented. For example you can't augment crates.io with other crates from
+crates.io! Cargo will load the crates and extract the version information for
+each dependency's name, supplementing the source specified with the version it
+finds. If the same name/version pair *already* exists in the source being
+augmented, then this will act just like `[replace]`, replacing its source with
+the one specified in the `[augment]` section.
+
+Like `[replace]`, the `[augment]` section is only taken into account for the
+root crate (or workspace root); allowing it to accumulate anywhere in the crate
+dependency graph creates intractable problems for dependency resolution.
+
+The sub-table of `[augment]` (where `crates-io` is used above) is used to
+specify the source that's being augmented. Cargo will know ahead of time one
+identifier, literally `crates-io`, but otherwise this field will currently be
+interpreted as a URL of a source. The name `crates-io` will correspond to the
+crates.io index, and other urls, such as git repositories, may also be specified
+for augmentation. Eventually it's intended we'll grow support for multiple
+registries here with their own identifiers, but for now just literally
+`crates-io` and other URLs are allowed.
+
+## Examples
+
+It's easiest to see how the feature works by looking at a few examples.
+
+Let's imagine that `xml-rs` is currently at version `0.9.1` on crates.io, and we
+have the following dependency setup:
+
+- Crate `foo` lists dependency `xml-rs = "0.9.0"`
+- Crate `bar` lists dependency `xml-rs = "0.9.1"`
+- Crate `baz` lists dependency `xml-rs = "0.8.0"`
+- Crate `servo` has `foo`, `bar` and `baz` as dependencies.
+
+With this setup, the dependency graph for Servo will contain *two* versions of
+`xml-rs`: `0.9.1` and `0.8.0`. That's because minor versions are coalesced;
+`0.9.1` is considered a minor release against `0.9.0`, while `0.9.0` and `0.8.0`
+are incompatible.
+
+### Scenario: augmenting with a bugfix
+
+Let's say that while developing `foo` we've got a lock file pointing to `xml-rs`
+`0.8.0`, and there's an `0.8.0` branch of `xml-rs` that hasn't been touched
+since it was published. We then find a bug in the 0.8.0 publication of `xml-rs`
+which we'd like to fix.
+
+First we'll check out `foo` locally and implement what we believe is a fix for
+this bug, and next, we change `Cargo.toml` for `foo`:
+
+```toml
+[augment.crates-io]
+xml-rs = { path = "../xml-rs" }
+```
+
+When compiling `foo`, Cargo will resolve the `xml-rs` dependency to `0.8.0`,
+as it did before, but that version's been replaced with our local copy. The
+local path dependency, which has version 0.8.0, takes precedence over the
+version found in the registry.
+
+Once we've confirmed a fix bug we then continue to run tests in `xml-rs` itself,
+and then we'll send a PR to the main `xml-rs` repo. This then leads us to the
+next section where a new version of `xml-rs` comes into play!
+
+### Scenario: prepublishing a new minor version
+
+Now, suppose that `foo` needs some changes to `xml-rs`, but we want to check
+that all of Servo compiles before pushing the changes through.
+
+First, we change `Cargo.toml` for `foo`:
+
+```toml
+[augment.crates-io]
+xml-rs = { git = "https:/aturon/xml-rs", branch = "0.9.2" }
+
+[dependencies]
+xml-rs = "0.9.2"
+```
+
+For `servo`, we also need to record the prepublication, but don't need to modify
+or introduce any `xml-rs` dependencies; it's enough to be using the fork of
+`foo`, which we would be anyway:
+
+```toml
+[augment.crates-io]
+xml-rs = { git = "https:/aturon/xml-rs", branch = "0.9.2" }
+
+[dependencies]
+foo = { git = "https:/aturon/foo", branch = "fix-xml" }
+```
+
+With this setup:
+
+- When compiling `foo`, Cargo will resolve the `xml-rs` dependency to `0.9.2`, and
+retrieve the source from the specified git branch.
+
+- When compiling `servo`, Cargo will again resolve *two* versions of `xml-rs`,
+this time `0.9.2` and `0.8.0`, and for the former it will use the source from
+the git branch.
+
+The Cargo.toml files that needed to be changed here span from the crate that
+actually cares about the new version (`foo`) upward to the root of the crate we
+want to do integration testing for (`servo`); no sibling crates needed to be
+changed.
+
+Once `xml-rs` version `0.9.2` is actually published, we can remove the
+`[augment]` sections, and Cargo will warn us that this needs to be done.
+
+### Scenario: prepublishing a new major version
+
+What happens if `foo` instead needs to make a breaking change to `xml-rs`? The
+workflow is identical. For `foo`:
+
+```toml
+[augment.crates-io]
+xml-rs = { git = "https:/aturon/xml-rs", branch = "0.10.0" }
+
+[dependencies]
+xml-rs = "0.10.0"
+```
+
+For `servo`:
+
+```toml
+[augment.crates-io]
+xml-rs = { git = "https:/aturon/xml-rs", branch = "0.10.0" }
+
+[dependencies]
+foo = { git = "https:/aturon/foo", branch = "fix-xml" }
+```
+
+However, when we compile, we'll now get *three* versions of `xml-rs`: `0.8.0`,
+`0.9.1` (retained from the previous lockfile), and `0.10.0`. Assuming that
+`xml-rs` is a public dependency used to communicate between `foo` and `bar` this
+will result in a compilation error, since they are using distinct versions of
+`xml-rs`. To fix that, we'll need to update `bar` to also use the new, `0.10.0`
+prepublication version of `xml-rs`.
+
+(Note that a
+[private dependency](https:/rust-lang/cargo/issues/2064) distinction
+would help catch this issue at the Cargo level and give a maximally informative
+error message).
+
+## Impact on `Cargo.lock`
+
+Usage of `[augment]` will perform backwards-incompatible modifications to
+`Cargo.lock`, meaning that usage of `[augment]` will prevent previous versions
+of Cargo from interpreting the lock file. Cargo will unconditionally resolve all
+entries in the `[augment]` section to precise dependencies, encoding them all in
+the lock file whether they're used or not.
+
+Dependencies formed on crates listed in `[augment]` will then be listed directly
+in Cargo.lock, eschewing the actual dependency entirely. For example let's say
+we depend on `env_logger` but we're using `[augment]` to depend on a git version
+of the `log` crate, a dependency of `env_logger`. First we'll have our
+`Cargo.toml` including:
+
+```toml
+# Cargo.toml
+[dependencies]
+env_logger = "0.4"
+```
+
+With that we'll find this in `Cargo.lock`, notably everything comes from
+crates.io
+
+```toml
+# Cargo.lock
+[[package]]
+name = "env_logger"
+version = "0.4.2"
+source = "registry+https:/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+dependencies = [
+ "log 0.3.7 (registry+https:/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "log"
+version = "0.3.7"
+source = "registry+https:/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+```
+
+Next up we'll add our `[augment]` section to crates.io:
+
+```toml
+# Cargo.toml
+[augment.crates-io]
+log = { git = 'https:/rust-lang-nursery/log' }
+```
+
+and that will generate a lock file that looks (roughly) like:
+
+```toml
+# Cargo.lock
+[[package]]
+name = "env_logger"
+version = "0.4.2"
+source = "registry+https:/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+dependencies = [
+ "log 0.3.7 (git+https:/rust-lang-nursery/log)",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "log"
+version = "0.3.7"
+source = "git+https:/rust-lang-nursery/log#cb9fa28812ac27c9cadc4e7b18c221b561277289"
+```
+
+Notably `log` from crates.io *is not mentioned at all here*, and crucially so!
+Additionally Cargo has the fully resolved version of the `log` augmentation
+available to it, down to the sha of what to check out.
+
+When Cargo rebuilds from this `Cargo.lock` it will not query the registry for
+versions of `log`, instead seeing that there's an exact dependency on the git
+repository (from the `Cargo.lock`) and the repository is listed as an
+augmentation, so it'll follow that pointer.
+
+## Impact on `[replace]`
+
+The `[augment]` section in the manifest can in many ways be seen as a "replace
+2.0". It is, in fact, strictly more expressive than the current `[replace]`
+section! For example these two sections are equivalent:
+
+```toml
+[replace]
+'log:0.3.7' = { git = 'https:/rust-lang-nursery/log' }
+
+# is the same as...
+
+[augment.crates-io]
+log = { git = 'https:/rust-lang-nursery/log' }
+```
+
+This is not accidental! The intial development of the `[augment]` feature was
+actually focused on prepublishing dependencies and was called `[prepublish]`,
+but while discussing it a conclusion was reached that `[prepublish]` already
+allowed replacing existing versions in a registry, but issued a warning when
+doing so. It turned out that without a warning we ended up having a full-on
+`[replace]` replacement!
+
+At this time, though, it is not planned to deprecate the `[replace]` section,
+nor remove it. After the `[augment]` section is implemented, if it ends up
+working out this may change. If after a few cycles on stable the `[augment]`
+section seems to be working well we can issue an official deprecation for
+`[replace]`, printing a warning if it's still used.
+
+Documentation, however, will immediately being to recommend `[augment]` over
+`[replace]`.
+
+# How We Teach This
+[how-we-teach-this]: #how-we-teach-this
+
+Augmentation is a feature intended for large-scale projects spanning many repos
+and crates, where you want to make something like an atomic change across the
+repos. As such, it should likely be explained in a dedicated section for
+large-scale Cargo usage, which would also include build system integration and
+other related topics.
+
+The mechanism itself is straightforward enough that a handful of examples (as in
+this RFC) is generally enough to explain it. In the docs, these examples should
+be spelled out in greater detail.
+
+Most notably, however, the [overriding dependenices][over] section of Cargo's
+documentation will be rewritten to primarily mention `[augment]`, but
+`[replace]` will be mentioned still with a recommendation to use `[augment]`
+instead if possible.
+
+[over]: http://doc.crates.io/specifying-dependencies.html#overriding-dependencies
+
+# Drawbacks
+[drawbacks]: #drawbacks
+
+This feature adds yet another knob around where, exactly, Cargo is getting its
+source and version information. In particular, it's basically deprecating
+`[replace]` if it works out, and it's typically a shame to deprecate major
+stable features.
+
+Fortunately, because these features are intended to be relatively rarely used,
+checked in even more rarely, are only used for very large projects, and cannot
+be published to crates.io, the knobs are largely invisible to the vast majority
+of Cargo users, who are unaffected by them.
+
+# Alternatives
+[alternatives]: #alternatives
+
+The primary alternative for addressing the motivation of this RFC would be to
+loosen the restrictions around `[replace]`, allowing it to arbitrarily change
+the version of the crate being replaced.
+
+As explained in the motivation section, however, such an approach does not fully
+address the desired workflow, for a few reasons:
+
+- It does not make it possible to track which crates in the dependency graph
+ have successfully upgraded to a new major version of the replaced dependency,
+ which could have the effect of masking important *behavioral* breaking changes
+ (that still allow the crates to compile).
+
+- It does not provide an easy-to-understand picture of what the crates will look
+ like after the relevant dependencies are published. In particular, you can't
+ use the usual resolution algorithm to understand what's going on with version
+ resolution.
+
+- It does not provide any warning when the replaced crate has actually been
+ published to the index, which could lead to silent divergences depending on
+ which root crate you're compiling.
+
+# Unresolved questions
+[unresolved]: #unresolved-questions
+
+- It would be extremely helpful to provide a first-class workflow for forking a
+ dependency and making the necessary changes to Cargo.toml for prepublication,
+ and for fixing things up when publication actually occurs. That shouldn't be
+ hard to do, but is out of scope for this RFC.